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Oracle's products are licensed per CPU or per user/employee. With the advent of multi-core CPUs, Oracle have adjusted their model to reflect changes in CHIP technology.

Many vendors have dual-core CPUs but Sun have released the first CPU with more than two cores - code named Niagara, the UltraSPARC T1 chip has upto 8 cores(note 1). Oracle recognised this innovation by quickly changing their model to include a tier for the T1 Chip - a real coup for Sun and great news for Sun customers.

The current Oracle model is thus:-

Oracle Processor Licensing: Processor Factor

UltraSparc T1 0.25
AMD/Intel 0.50
All other Multi-core Servers 0.75
Single Core Servers 1.00


For example, if an AMD, IBM, Intel or Sun UltraSparc T1 multi-core server was installed and/or running Oracle software on 8 cores, the licenses would be calculated in the following manner:

-- IBM multi-core server -- Requires 6 processor licenses (8 multiplied by a factor of .75 equals 6)
-- Intel or AMD server -- Requires 4 processor licenses (8 multiplied by a factor of .50 equals 4)
-- Sun UltraSparc T1 server -- Requires 2 processor licenses (8 multiplied by a factor of .25 equals 2)


You can read the full press release here.

Note 1: The T1 chip has eight cores, each core can handle 4 threads giving a throughput of 32 simultaneous threads. This new technology has already set a raft of world record benchmark results.